Saturday, 28 February 2015

Back home yesterday afternoon after a week working away in Slovakia. It was mild, dry and with sunshine so I was looking forward to getting the garden trap back out. By the time I lit up though it had turned distinctly chilly and I very low expectations. I was a bit knackered so didn't bother checking the trap at all before heading off to bed early, and it was not until late this morning that I bothered to check it. There was nothing in or under the trap at all, and just a single moth resting on the house wall nearest the trap. So just one moth of one species .......

Oak Beauty - a garden tick!

Not the best individual with a bit of wear and a patch of missing scales, but a nice garden tick all the same. It brings the garden macro list up to 310 and the overall garden moth list to 659.

Wednesday, 18 February 2015

Time for another overdue species to highlight, though I'm not sure whether this one really is an overdue or more likely 'long gone' from around here.

Garden Tiger is a species I was familiar with long before I started moth recording, so I was pleased but not spectacularly surprised when one turned up on 22/07/2001 - just my second full year of garden light trapping. Never had a sniff of one here since, and whilst I have seen odd ones over the years whilst out of county trapping (notably at the inlaws North Devon garden and at Wicken Fen) I don't think I've seen one in VC55 since 2006. I'm not expecting this one to reappear in the garden trap any time soon.

Still haven't got to grips with indoor photography using the bright led ring I bought. I can't seem to get the right white balance set regardless of what I do including using the photographers grey card. Need more practice, but for that I need more moths in the early/late season and more time. Here's a couple of not too bad quick shots in the meantime.

Pale Brindled Beauty

Dotted Border

Forgot to post a note a couple of weeks back about a lucky garden tick. I'd made some pack-up for work and then promptly forgot to take it in the morning so I nipped home at lunch. Whilst peering out of the kitchen window with a sarnie hovering in front of my face, two Cormorants flew over the garden. I've seen a few flyover Cormorants around here over the last couple of years, but these were the first over the garden.

And whilst I'm at it, here's an old photo from the garden that I found whilst sorting out some old files from one back-up drive to another.

Sunday, 1 February 2015

Today was one of those days where it looked quite nice out, a bit of sun and dry, but standing on the touchline this afternoon whilst Josh kicked a bag of wind about with the Cosby team it was bloody freezing cold. All the more surprising then that the first garden macro for 2015 appeared to a lit window this evening - and for the third year on the trot it was an Early Moth.

Played in bands, drank some beer, went birding, started twitching, played poker, drank some beer, photographed moths, stopped twitching, watched some football, stopped birding, drank some beer, started birding, and somewhere along the way got married and created three great children. Not necessarily in that order. Please have a look at the first posting to this BLOG for a slightly more detailed introduction to my background.